LATE 18TH-19TH CENTURY

Details

A PAIR OF LARGE GILT-METAL-MOUNTED CLOISONNÉ ENAMEL FACETED VASES AND COVERS
LATE 18TH-19TH CENTURY
The vases are finely decorated on the four sides with peony, chrysanthemum and aster and there are further flowers on the tapering shoulders. The faceted corners are decorated with blue angular scroll and are overlaid with gilt-metal mounts cast as cord-tied bi discs stretched between the beaks of winged birds applied to the shoulder corners and the heads of crouching monster supports at the base. The faceted covers are similarly decorated with prunus and other flowers below a lingzhi fungus finial.
21 ½ in. (54.6 cm.) high

Brought to you by

Olivia Hamilton

asianartny@christies.com +1 212 636 2180

Lot Essay

A pair of similar covered vases is displayed in situ at the Zixiao dian in the Yiheyuan, Summer Palace. The hall was a lounge for princes, patriarchs and cabinet ministers when gathered to celebrate the Empress Dowager Cixi's birthdays, and a repository for her birthday gifts.

A similar vase in the Shenyang Imperial Palace Museum is illustrated in The Prime Cultural Relics Collected by Shenyang Imperial Palace Museum, The Enamel Volume, 2007, p. 170, no. 14. A very similar, unpublished, vase with cover is in the collection of the British Museum, collection no. 1992.0704.1. Compare, also, one sold at Christie's New York, 20 September 2005, lot 116, and another sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 28 May 2014, lot 3544.

More from Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art

View All